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Monday, March 18, 2013

On March 5th, in the midst of a Minnesota snowstorm, Doug Mack visited South High to speak to AP Human Geography and Voices students.

Doug holds the distinction of being a South High graduate from the class of 1999. I met him at the Twin Cities Book Festival and when I found out he graduated from South, I knew he had to speak at South to my classes. Doug is a freelance travel writer and has written a book about his travels in Europe called Europe on 5 Wrongs Turns a Day. He was just the author in residence on a cruise ship where he traveled through the Panama canal and gave lectures at night to those interested in travel writing.

Doug showed us pictures of his travels through Europe and Central America. He told some funny stories about pigeons landing on him in Austria and staying in hostel with centipedes in his tiny hovel of a room. He then opened the floor for Questions. We found out that Doug is not a adventurous eater but he did eat Mexican food in Germany and doesn't recommend it since they used mayonaise instead of salsa. When asked which book influenced him the most Doug replied with, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, which he read when he was a student at South. He said the writing was incredible. I agree. I love that book.

Pictured above Doug is posing with some of the students in the Voices class. Doug was in Voices when he was a senior. Thanks Doug for coming to South and sharing your travel and writing experiences. It was great!